5. apare 'yam itas tv anyam
prakrtim viddhi- me param
jivabhutam mahabaho
yaye 'dam dharyate jagat
(5) This is My lower nature. Know My other and higher nature which is the soul, by which this world is upheld. 0 Mighty-armed (Arjuna)
The Supreme is I vara, the personal Lord of the universe who contains conscious souls (ksetrajna) and unconscious nature (ksetra). The two are regarded as His higher (para.) and lower (apara) aspects. He is the life and form of every being.[1] The Universal Being of God includes the totality of the unconscious in His lower nature and the totality of the conscious in His higher. The embodiment of the soul in body, life, sense, mind and understanding gives us the ego, which uses the material setting for its activity. Each individual has two sides, the soul and the image, ksetrajna and ksetra. These are the two natures of Isvara who is superior to them both.[2] The Old Testament teaches creation out of nothing. Plato and Anstotle assume a primitive matter to which God gives form. God is an artificer or architect rather than a creator, for primitive substance is thought of as eternal and uncreated and only form is due to the will of God. For Christian thinkers, God creates not from any pre-existent matter but out of nothing. Both matter and form are derived from God. A similar view is set forth in this verse The jiva is only a partial manifestation of the Supreme.[3] The integral undivided reality of the Supreme appears divided into the multiplicity of souls [4]The unity is the truth and multiplicity is an expression of it and so is a lower truth but not an illusion
6. etadyonfni bhutam
sarvam 'ty upadharaya
aham krtsnasya jagatah
prabhavah pralayas tatha
(6) Know that all beings have their birth in this I am the origin of all this world and its dissolution as well.
The world with all its becomings is from the Supreme' and at the time of dissolution is withdrawn into Him. Cp Taittiriyr Up., III . God includes the universe within Himself, projects [5]from and resumes it within Himself, that is, His own nature.
7. mattah parataram na 'nyat
kimcid asti dhanamjaya
mayi sarvam idam protam
sutre manigana iva
(7) There is nothing whatever that is higher than I, 0 Winner of wealth (Arjuna). All that is here is strung on me as rows of gems on a string
There is no other higher principle than T vara who effects everything and is everything. The existences of the world are held together by the Supreme Spirit even as the gems are by the string.
8. raso 'ham apsu kaunteya
prabha 'smi sasisuryayoh
pranavah sarvavedesu
sabdah khe paurusam nrsu
(8) I am the taste in the waters, 0 Son of Kunti (Arjuna), I am the light in the moon and the sun. I am the syllable Aum in all the Vedas; I am the sound in ether and manhood in men.
